Conodont biostratigraphy of Tournaisian shallow-water carbonates in central Guangxi, South China

The conodont faunas of Tournaisian shallow-water carbonates from central Guangxi are described mainly for biostratigraphic purposes. A complete series of samples was collected from the Long’an and Du’an formations in the Long’an section. These formations are characterized by lime-mudstone, skeletal and peloidal wackestone, packstone and grainstone with typical shallow-water biota. Overall, these samples produced 809 identifiable Pl elements, belonging to 50 species in 11 genera, of which one species and one subspecies are new. The fauna enables the establishment of seven biozones (in ascending order): Polygnathus spicatus, Siphonodella homosimplex, S. sinensis, S. dasaibaensis, Polygnathus communis carina Acme, Gnathodus cuneiformis, and P. communis porcatus zones. Based on these new collections from central Guangxi and on data from the literature, a conflated Tournaisian conodont zonation is proposed for shallow-water successions in South China. Most of the conodont zones correlate well with their counterparts recognized in Western Europe, which may be of greater significance in stratigraphic correlation than previously thought.